March 27, 2009 - Daily Star - Tribunal prosecutor asks Beirut to transfer case to The Hague

No progress on memo of understanding with court - report
The prosecutor at a special UN court set up to try suspects accused of attacks in Lebanon asked Beirut on Wednesday to hand over the case relating to the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Daniel A. Bellemare, filed an application late Wednesday urging the pre-trial judge to ask Lebanese authorities to "defer to the tribunal's competence," according to a statement from the STL.
It added that Lebanese officials should also "hand over to the prosecutor the results of the investigations and a copy of the relevant court records and other probative material, and submit to the pre-trial judge a list of all persons detained in connection with the investigation."
The STL was the first international terrorist court, created in 2007 by a United Nations Security Council resolution in 2007. It began work outside The Hague on March 1.
It is charged with trying suspects of attacks in Lebanon, including the murder of Hariri, killed with 22 other people in a bomb attack in February 2005. Bellemare had two months from March 1 to submit his request to the Lebanese authorities.
Four Lebanese generals have been detained since August 2005 in connection with the enquiry into the Hariri killing. The first two reports from the UN committee of inquiry set up two months after the assassination suggested that there was evidence of involvement by the Syrian intelligence services.
In an interview with the Italian daily La Republica on Wednesday the president of the STL Antonio Cassesse said: "The fate of the four [detained] generals will be decided in May, either they are released or charged." He said nothing would affect the STL's work, adding: "Beginning today we shall begin [working] with the first issue, that is the four Lebanese generals who were former security and intelligence directors."
He said the tribunal would effectively begin next year, adding that for this purpose a new detention and criminal trial law have been adopted.
"Most important is that we have formed a defense bureau that is equally important to the general prosecutor's office," Cassesse said.
He said Syria has up to now maintained the right not to deliver potential Syrian suspects, and added that there is a need to conclude a judicial cooperation protocol with Damascus.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published on Wednesday that Damascus no information about the murder four years ago of Hariri.
"From a security point of view, we do not have any intelligence on the matter," Assad was quoted by Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper as saying.
"We cooperated with the investigators of the [UN] commission, but we do not have any pertinent information," Assad said of the panel created after Hariri's murder.
Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat said on Thursday no progress has been made toward the Memorandum of Understanding between Lebanon and the international tribunal.
It said a revised version of the proposed text did not receive a response from Hizbullah. - The Daily Star, with AFP
Authorities probe shooting attack on judges' vehicles
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities were on Thursday investigating a shooting incident targeting the cars of two senior judges in Badaro on Wednesday afternoon. The attacks caused material damages and were widely condemned by top officials.
The cars belong to magistrates Talal Baydoun and Mirna Wanssa, who are members of the state Shura council. They were not in their cars at the time of the shooting.
Forensic experts were immediately dispatched to the area, where the Justice Ministry of Justice is located. A bullet found lodged in Baydoun's car was being examined, a statement by the National News Agency said Thursday.
"This is a message for the Lebanese judiciary," Baydoun said, adding that this was the second time his car was shot at.
Premier Fouad Siniora called for "intensified" investigations into "this unacceptable attack." He described it as "an attempt to undermine the state and its organs and will not be dealt with lightly."
Earlier Thursday, Speaker Nabih Berri condemned the shooting as "an attempt to destroy Lebanon through targeting judges."
Echoing Berri's comments, Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said: "We absolutely reject any attempt to target the judiciary, and hope that the results of the investigation can be reached soon and made public." Asked whether the shooting can be linked to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Baroud said he preferred "not to forestall the investigations." He pointed out that Lebanese judges were victims of violence long before the launching of the tribunal.